Oh, fuck. I rolled on my back and tugged the sheet up to my neck. I’d really rather if she didn’t see the assortment of hickeys all over my neck and my cleavage.
She might want me to be happily screwing the nice salad boy, but I wasn’t supposed to have quite that much fun doing it.
“Oh, this old thing?” I faked a yawn. “What’re you doing here? I thought you were training with Fox?”
“He’s working out with Emerson and Timmins. He doesn’t need me there. He says I criticize him too much.”
“I would never believe such blasphemy.”
She rolled her eyes and sat on the edge of the bed. “So I get a little hyper. Emerson seems to do a better job with him than I do. He’s filling in for Slater in Fox’s corner,” she added.
Slater. Exactly whom I intended to have a little pow-wow with today, after I got some studying in. Thanks to my constant state of exhaustion due to my insane schedule lately, I was getting behind on my studies. I had a quiz next week on French soups I needed to bone up on.
All the other kinds of boning I’d been doing lately were taking its toll.
“So you’ve just given up on Slater then.” I leaned up on my elbow. “Not like you, sis.”
“What else do you propose we do? He’s not returning our calls. And to be honest, after that knife incident, I’m really not thinking his judgment is in the best place right now. What can he possibly see in her?”
I tried not to make the parallels between Slater’s situation and mine. Really, they were so different, though falling for an ex-con or a current one were equally bad. I couldn’t see Gio as a criminal. I’d had other boyfriends, and none of them had come close to treating me the way he did.
Sure, he kept secrets, and he didn’t always call, and there were all kinds of things between us that went unsaid. But when we were alone together, whether in bed or pushing a cart through the store, he was focused on me exclusively. As I was focused on him.
“Love does crazy things to the mind,” I said quietly, picking at my ragged cuticles. I’d need to fit in a manicure sometime soon.
Maybe after I headed to the doctor next week to make sure my finger was healing okay. I was still getting pain when I used it, and it still bled on occasion. I hoped I didn’t have to go back on antibiotics again, but as a budding chef, I used my hands too much to wait and see.
“You’re telling me.” Mia sighed. “I just never would’ve expected him to shut us out like this. He’s been friends with Fox for years.” She bowed her head, her dark braid falling forward over her shoulder. “I hate that they’re fighting because of my fucked-up past.”
I scooted closer and wrapped my arm around her. “They aren’t. They’re at odds because Slater’s choosing someone he barely knows over his best friends.” Hearing myself, I shut my eyes.
Pot, get acquainted with kettle.
“Yeah, but he falls hard and fast. It’s not surprising she figured out how to get to him. He’s too sweet for his own good sometimes.”
Because her description of Slater struck a little too close to home, I flopped back on the bed and threw my arm over my face. All I wanted was to check out and sleep for a while, not think about all of this mess anymore.
Fat chance.
“We tried to talk to him yesterday, but he never answered the door. Tray wanted to read him the riot act over the knife business, but something seems off. I don’t know what.”
I lowered my arm. “Off like what? You don’t think Olivia did the knife thing?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t.” She rubbed her eyes. “All I know is he’s virtually guaranteed to get hurt, and I don’t want it to happen.”
“Yeah, well, he’ll learn. Maybe it’s his mistake to make, and he needs to be let alone.”
Not that I intended to do that later today, but Ame didn’t need to know that. I wanted to go to Slater’s alone, and if she knew my plans, she’d probably tag along.
“You think it’s that easy, huh? It’s hard to let someone you love do something that you know is going to wreck them.”
“You’re not in his head. You don’t know how it is between them when they’re alone. You don’t understand.”
“You’d be surprised,” she said drily. “I know a little bit about falling for someone now.”
I didn’t say anything, because it wasn’t at all the same. Fox was basically a living Greek god. He was the hero in every fairytale.
Try falling for the supposed villain, sis, then we’ll talk.